2006-09-22 04:13:14 · 49 answers · asked by Dirty Rob 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
You have to discount the benefits each invention provides to mankind with the harm that the same invention has also done to mankind.
For example, the hypocrite Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, saying it would be used to benefit mankind in mining industries. What actually happened was that it ushered in a new age of horror as warfare became more deadly than ever before. The survivors of warfare no longer bore mere scars, but were incredibly disfigured and crippled. (Nobel tried to make up for what he had done by establishing the Nobel 'peace' prize.)
As we have been told since childhood, fire is both friend and foe. It heats our homes and has also been used to murder. The lever, the wheel, the inclined plane, the screw, the pulley, the wedge, have all been used as instruments of torture, or to build still more complicated weapons.
Even language itself is used to harm; we speak of 'cutting remarks' and just because they cause emotional injury, the harm is still real, the pain is still as lasting as that of physical damage.
Nuclear power...? Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Space travel...? Directly based on intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the crushing terror of the Cold War.
Clothing? It provokes jealousies and drives millions to slavery at the hands of the fashion industries.
With this understanding, I think that the invention which has done MORE to ALLEVIATE human suffering-- and, at the same time-- has been used LESS OFTEN to CAUSE human suffering than any other invention is: the humble toothpick.
2006-09-22 04:34:30 · answer #1 · answered by cdf-rom 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Excellent question.
Looking at all the answers posted I am reminded that none of these inventions was the work of an individual but rather building upon those things learned and passed on from the past, yes I do understand that the was one person who had a breakthrough and put the ideas together in a new way.
My answer is written language, think about it. Without being able to record knowledge we would be limited to a spoken history and mankind would never have been able to pass on knowledge to the next generation.
2006-09-22 10:03:22 · answer #2 · answered by BOB W 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Language - in a broader sense - means of communicating - in three phases.
Symbolic sounds / gestures / writing that represent internal feelings or other things.
That is the only way that one person can convey something to another - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language - in addition to commonly understood written or spoken 'symbols' - they are all 'languages'.
Three Phases:
1. Non-verbal languages / vocabularies - facial expressions and other body language. Widely believed to still convey 75-80% of all communication between people even today.
2. Verbal Communication. Our brains evolved to their current capacity tens of thousands of years before the existence of anything but the most rudimentary written 'language'. Speaking and the nuance of non-verbal communication are the basis for all written communication.
3. Written Language. This is how we 'Stand on the Shoulders of Giants'. Knowledge accumulates and is stored and saved and can be accessed by others - across time and distance.
Complex Non-Verbal Language (which is very, very nearly universal across all cultures covering the entire planet, btw) is the invention to which all others owe their existence.
2006-09-22 14:25:40 · answer #3 · answered by roland_reardon 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Gutenberg Press
A few years ago a list of the most important inventions rated the Gutenberg Press as #1.
2006-09-22 05:02:38 · answer #4 · answered by Jim W 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The wheel, every other single thing has the wheel somewhere in it. Engines do have round Gear wheels, waching machines, and talkin bout flushes, the water wont be there unless it is pumped to an overhead tank, and pumps use wheels. TV? well, TV's were manufactured in some industry and as you know every industry is made of Gear wheels. The greatest invention ever made by mankind is undisputably 'THE WHEEL'
2006-09-22 05:54:41 · answer #5 · answered by jammy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the best invention ever invented is the computer. It is the computer due to which you are being able to ask me question and I am being able to answer you. So, computer is the best invention ever done.
2006-09-22 04:18:54 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
How about the whole idea of inventing and thinking differently?
Without that there would be no inventions!
2006-09-22 07:40:12 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Agriculture.
It allowed a "nobility" class to come into existence, and these are the folks who invented everything else.
On the other hand, agriculture is also the worst invention. From it came taxation, slavery, endemic disease, degradation of the environment, overpopulation, ...
2006-09-22 07:43:28 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
the wheel is the best invetion ever made ,in adittion to that the energy conversion process invention is the also the next best.
2006-09-22 04:41:29 · answer #9 · answered by sathya 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Electricity!
2006-09-22 04:20:45 · answer #10 · answered by crandle55 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋